Before Florida National Guard troops return

December 20, 2009|By Mike Clary, Staff writer

Soldiers headed to war pack light. What does not fit in a duffle bag they must carry in their hearts.

When the 1st Battalion of the Florida National Guard's 124th Infantry Regiment heads back to Iraq early next year, Sgt. Jetaune Kelly will leave behind in Pembroke Pines the child that she and her husband, Derrick, tried so long to have. Kelly will miss Kemora's second birthday.

"I'll have her picture, and maybe one of her teddy bears — although not her favorite," said Kelly, 37, imagining what it will be like to be apart from the live-wire girl who turns 2 on Jan. 24. "But other than that, I'll stay busy, stay focused."

In Lake Worth, Sgt. Major Michael Naugle will say goodbye to his wife, Colleen, and their three children for the second time in seven years. As a citizen-soldier, he left his job with the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's office and went to Iraq with the 124th Infantry when the war began in 2003.

This time he'll be away for two family milestones: his daughter Kimberly's graduation from John I. Leonard High School and 10-year-old daughter Heather's step up from elementary school to middle school.

"The kids are not very happy about my leaving, but they understand why I'm doing it," said Naugle, 47, who served seven years in the active Army before joining the Guard. "I've always wanted to be a soldier."

Added Colleen Naugle: "We're a military family. He's been a solider all their lives."

This holiday season will be bittersweet for military families all around South Florida. As the troops steel themselves for battle, they also brace for emotional farewells before flying out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Jan. 5 for Fort Hood, Texas.

There, more than 600 men and women of the battalion will take part in two months of intensive training before deploying to Iraq and a mission of providing convoy security.

Knowing the soldiers are likely to still be deployed at this time next year, many families are trying to make this holiday special.

Jetaune Kelly is flying to her native Cleveland for a visit with her mother and relatives who have yet to meet Kemora.

The Naugles are planning a family outing to Fort Myers and a trip aboard the Murder Mystery Dinner Train.

Training for war has been going on for months. In addition to monthly drills, the battalion in October and November spent 30 days at Camp Blanding in North Florida, where they rehearsed convoy formations and what to do when confronted by improvised explosive devices or roadside bombs and insurgent snipers.

Harder to rehearse is what it will feel like to be separated from loved ones.

"Most people don't know what it's like to feel that loneliness, the anxiety of having someone deployed," said Anamarie Root, whose husband, 1st Sgt. James Root, is going to Iraq for the second time.

Deployments require major adjustments to domestic schedules, especially for families with children. Veteran military wives, including Anamarie Root and Colleen Naugle, already pay the family bills and take the lead in shuttling children to school and ballgames.

But a spouse on active duty can mean having no emergency backup and requires those at home to learn new tasks.

Michael Naugle has taught his son Shawn, 22, for example, the trick of starting the balky lawnmower, and Kimberly, 17, vows to be even more helpful in the kitchen.

In Pembroke Pines, James Root helps coach his three sons, ages 13, 10 and 8, in their soccer and football leagues. They know he's going to war for a year. "We talk about it," said Root, 40. "They understand it's my job. But I don't think they truly comprehend it."

Derrick Kelly, 36, also a sergeant in the Guard who served a tour in Afghanistan in 2004-05, thinks he can handle all aspects of full-time childcare, with the exception of braiding Kemora's hair.

"A ponytail I can do, but braids, I might get some help from some of the women in the family with that," he said.

Through its Yellow Ribbon Program, the National Guard provides soldiers and families with information on such topics as medical benefits and coping with depression and anxiety. Each company has a Family Readiness Group designed to unite and aid the families of deployed soldiers.

"We want the soldiers to know that the household is still functioning, that we're not falling apart," said Anamarie Root, coordinator of family readiness for the battalion's Headquarters Company. "Then they can stay focused on their tasks over there."

But deployments take a toll.

"The hardest part for me is the worry about getting bad news that something has happened," said Anamarie Root. "It's that everyday stress of worrying, ‘Is he OK? Is he going to come home alive?'"

Colleen Naugle helps run a guard phone tree that keeps families in touch and responds to the steady flow of chatter about what is happening in the war.